Gilmored!
by LanieSullivan
Summary: A different take on the Friday night dinner conversation in "You've Been Gilmored," one that gets Luke and Lorelai talking about their future. One-shot.


AN: I'm horrible for not updating my other two stories, I know, but I got this idea in my head that wouldn't let go. I was recently re-watching the episode "You've Been Gilmored" and I was once again annoyed by the stupid insurance bit and kept thinking what if the conversation had taken a different turn? Those of you who have been faithfully reading my other stories have probably figured out by now that I'm obsessed with making the mess of the sixth season less of a mess, so I felt compelled to write my own version of the Friday night dinner, just a one-shot. So here it is. I hope you enjoy it. Now that this is done, I'll be returning to working on the other two stories.

Lanie

Luke and Lorelai were seated across from each other at her parents' dining room table both dying to get out of there while Emily watched Luke like a hawk.

"Luke, you eat so little," Emily commented as she'd noticed him picking at his plate.

"My motto is, everything in moderation," he replied.

"Smart," Richard said with a nod at his future son-in-law. "Very Walden-esque."

"But it's good, though. Everything's really good. The duck pate especially," Luke said as he reached for his drink, not wanting to offend Emily though the fancy food wasn't exactly his thing. He didn't want to give her yet one more reason to hate him now that she and Lorelai had started to mend the rift between them.

"Thank you," Emily said politely as she watched the maid bring Lorelai a martini. "Number three?" She questioned with an arched eyebrow.

"Hm?" Lorelai said cluelessly not really paying attention. She just wanted to get out of her parents' and go home with her fiancé.

"The martini," Emily replied indicating the drink in her daughter's hand.

"Helps settle my stomach," Lorelai answered noncommittally.

"Gin?"

"Absolutely. It helps counteract the oh-so-regrettable shrimp I had for lunch today."

"Yeah, you mentioned that before," Luke chimed in knowing that Lorelai was going with her fake-stomach pain bit to get them out of there a little earlier. "The shrimp did not agree with you."

"Might have to turn in early," Lorelai hinted then added dramatically, "Damn that Al!"

"Al?" Emily queried.

"Al's Pancake World, where I had the shrimp," Lorelai explained.

"You ate shrimp at a pancake house? Well, of course your stomach is unsettled!" Emily was shocked that her daughter would even think of attempting to eat shrimp at a pancake house. There was no way the results could be good. She glanced from her daughter to Luke and saw the looks that were being passed between them as if they had some secret communication going on. She wondered what that was about and what shared secret they might have that she was unaware of. Her daughter shared so little of her personal life with her. She'd practically had to browbeat her wedding date out of her the week before.

"You should drink club soda," Richard suggested oblivious as usual to the underlying tone the conversation was taking.

"I think we have some at the house," Luke said with a pointed glance at his fiancée while Emily turned her attention to him.

"Yeah, might have to cut the night a little short," Lorelai said following Luke's lead.

"So are you living at Lorelai's house, Luke," Emily asked wondering if that was the reason behind the not-so-subtle looks that were passing between her daughter and Luke.

"Mother," Lorelai said in exasperation.

"Is that so private," Emily questioned a little affronted that once again Lorelai wasn't willing to share any information about her life without a little prodding.

"No, we're in the process of consolidating things," Luke answered coming to Lorelai's rescue, though he was wondering himself why they weren't. The house had been done for months but yet they were still living apart. He'd thought that after the remodeling was complete and after they'd picked out bedroom furniture together to replace his grandmother's, that she would have let him move in, but she'd given no indication that that was what she wanted. He wanted to talk to Lorelai about it but he didn't want to push her into something she wasn't ready for. After all, it had been her idea to postpone their wedding, so maybe she was getting cold feet.

"Consolidating your assets," Richard queried.

"Right," Luke said with a firm nod.

"Tricky business," Richard commented.

"Is that house big enough for the two of you," Emily asked her daughter.

"I've remodeled a little, added some space," Lorelai said.

"Smart." Richard said.

"Yeah, well, we're smart today," Lorelai said sardonically.

"Except when you ate that shrimp," Luke said in an effort to steer the conversation back to their escape plan.

"Yeah, that was dumb and now my stomach is really paying for it," Lorelai said hoping that her mother would take the hint and not force them to prolong the evening.

Emily glanced at her daughter and pondered her statement about adding space to the house and the very-soon wedding date combined with the unsettled stomach. "Or perhaps the shrimp is not the reason your stomach's upset," she suggested shifting her glance from Lorelai to Luke, thinking that she'd finally figured out what was behind the unspoken communication between the two of them.

"Mom!" Lorelai snapped forcing Emily to look at her.

"What? It's a possibility, isn't it?" Emily asked turning her gaze back to Luke expectantly. "Well?"

"What are you talking about, Emily? Why else would she have an upset stomach?" Luke asked uncertainly not getting her meaning the way that Lorelai had.

Lorelai smiled and him and said, "You're so adorably clueless, Hon. what my dear mother is suggesting is that you knocked me up."

"Oh," he said and stared down at his plate.

"Lorelai, must you be so crude," Richard said.

"I'm just telling it like it is, Dad," Lorelai said defensively before turning back to her mother and saying, "And no, I'm not pregnant, ok?"

"Well, it's not such an out of line question, is it? I mean, the two of you have been together for quite some time so you obviously have an intimate relationship. If you combine that with your upset stomach along with the fact that you said you just added some space to your house and that your wedding date is so soon, it's a logical assumption. June third is not that far away, after all. Not to mention that with the sudden appearance of Luke's daughter, we know that you're both capable of conceiving."

Luke looked up at Lorelai with a questioning glance at the mention of June third and saw the silent plea in her eyes for him not to say anything. It was quite obvious from her expression that she hadn't yet told her parents that their wedding had been postponed. Luke nodded slightly in response to indicate that he'd keep his mouth shut. Lorelai breathed a sigh of relief since she didn't really want to have to explain all of that to her parents before saying to her mother "Trust me, Mom. I'm not pregnant. Do you think I'd be on my third martini if I were?"

"No, I suppose not," Emily said a little down-heartedly. "I don't know what I was thinking."

"You sound a little disappointed there, Mom. Are you suggesting that you _want_ Luke to get me pregnant? I mean, we're not married yet. Wouldn't that break all your rules?"

"Of course I wasn't suggesting that you get pregnant before you get married. It's bad enough that you each have a child out of wedlock. I was only thinking that since the two of you are planning a life together, that sometime during the course of that planning, the subject of having children would have come up."

"Your mother does have a point, Lorelai," Richard said. "When two people are committing to a life together, the idea of having a family often gets brought up."

"I get that, Dad," Lorelai said getting irritated with both of her parents now. "But not right now."

"But surely the two of you have talked about it," Emily said looking from Lorelai to Luke hoping for a straight answer from one of them.

"Yes, Emily, we've talked about it," Luke said with a glance at Lorelai and wondering why they hadn't talked about it recently. Since he'd found out about April, he'd been thinking about it more and more. He remembered vividly his humiliating 'what about the kids' outburst and their subsequent conversation about it but that was where the discussion had ended.

"And?" Emily probed.

"And what, Mom?" Lorelai said impatiently.

"What was the outcome of that conversation?"

"That's between me and Luke," Lorelai said firmly getting exasperated with her mother's prying.

"I disagree. If I'm going to be a grandmother again anytime soon, I think I have a right to know."

"Well, you're not, ok?"

"Don't you want to have children together," Emily asked turning to Luke.

"Mom!"

"I'm talking to Luke, Lorelai. You had your chance to answer my question. Maybe your fiancé will be a little more forthcoming." She turned back to Luke and said, "Well?"

Luke shifted uncomfortably in his seat at his future mother-in-law's probing glare and stammered, "Yeah, we…uh…talked about it when we first got engaged…and it's…um…something we agreed that we both wanted."

"But someday," Lorelai interjected. "Not right now. It's too soon for us."

"Well, you shouldn't wait too long," her mother said. "You don't have a lot of 'someday' left. I mean, neither of you is getting any younger. You'll be thirty-eight in April and Luke is…" she paused as she realized she didn't even know Luke's age, "How old are you, Luke?"

"I'll be forty in November," Luke answered.

"Ah, you see, he's older than you are, so you really shouldn't waste any time if that's what you really want. The older you get, the harder it is to conceive."

"What do you want me to do, Mom? Have Luke bend me over the table and try to make a baby right in front of you right here and now?"

"Jeez, Lorelai," Luke said.

"Don't be ridiculous," Emily snapped appalled at her daughter's impropriety. "I'm simply suggesting that if you want children together, you shouldn't wait until the last minute, that's all."

"Can we change the subject, please," Luke asked. "I'm not at all comfortable with where this conversation is going."

"I concur, Emily," Richard said. "When and if Luke and Lorelai decide to start making plans for having a family is not our concern."

"How can you say that, Richard? If they _do _have children, those children will be our grandchildren. This is our family we're talking about?"

"And if they want to share that with us when the time is right, they will. I think it's best if we leave that decision up to them."

"Thank you, Dad," Lorelai said.

"You're welcome," he said before turning to Luke and asking him, "So, how's business at the diner?"

"Good," Luke answered grateful for the change in topic. "Busy as ever."

Two hours later, Luke and Lorelai stumbled out the front door trying to hold each other up. "I don't think I can drive," Luke said.

"Well, walk to the car," Lorelai suggested keeping her arm around his waist as they staggered to Luke's truck together.

Luke leaned against his trusty Chevy trying to get his bearings and shake off the alcohol haze that was clouding his mind along with the conversation at dinner. He thought of the endless probing from Emily, which had subsided only until the dessert had been brought to the table when she'd started up the abandoned conversation again by asking about April before steering the discussion back to his and Lorelai's future family plans. He thought of Lorelai's words to her mother and due to his booze-soaked mind blurted out, "Why is it too soon for us?"

"What?" Lorelai asked bewildered

"When your mother was grilling us about when we plan on having kids, you said it was too soon. Why did you say that?"

"Gee…I don't know….maybe because we don't even have a wedding date set anymore," she replied sarcastically her bitterness at the delay in their plans evident in her voice.

"Why the hell don't we? What are we waiting for?"

"I don't know what you're waiting for, but _I'm _waiting for you to be ready to set a date."

"Me? I was ready to set a wedding date the night we got engaged. Postponing the wedding was your idea, not mine."

"Because _you _said it was too much! The kid and the wedding and everything so I suggested postponing because I thought that was what you wanted!"

"That's not what I was saying! I was asking for your help! You're the one with the kid experience and me, I'm…I'm stupid when it comes to kids."

"If that's what you wanted, then why have you been purposely keeping your kid away from me?"

"I thought that's what you wanted! I was freaking out about having a kid and I needed your help and your idea of helping was postponing our wedding! That made it very clear to me that you didn't want to be around my kid!"

"That's so not true. I've wanted to meet her since I found out about her! She's a part of you for God's sake! I want to get to know her the way you know Rory! I thought this was something that we'd share, but you shut me out of it!"

"I didn't shut you out of it until after you used her as an excuse to stop our wedding! Don't you want to marry me anymore? If you don't, you should just say so instead of blaming your hesitance on my kid!"

"Of course I want to marry you! I'm the one who proposed to you, remember?"

"I remember, Lorelai, but you haven't shown any interest in actually _getting _married since we got engaged!"

"How can you say that? I was heartbroken over postponing our wedding! I made all those plans and I had all these ideas about how to make our wedding day perfect and that was all shattered when you said it was too much! Then you made it clear that you didn't want me coming to the diner while April was there! You kept telling me to come by after she was gone."

"I just meant the kid thing with the wedding coming up so fast was too much and I only told you not to come by the diner while she was there because that was what you acted like you wanted!"

"That's not what I wanted!"

"Then why didn't you ever come to the diner when she was there? I always gave you the exact times she was going to be there hoping that you'd want to make an effort to get to know my kid. I mean, you're gonna be her stepmother, for crying out loud! If we ever get married, that is!"

"When exactly is that gonna be?"

"You tell me. You're the one who wanted to postpone the wedding! I even asked you that day if you were sure that was what you wanted and you said yes! I thought that meant that you needed more time!"

"But I didn't want to. I thought that you wanted to! I thought _you _needed more time."

"If you didn't want to and I didn't want to, then why the hell is the wedding postponed?"

"I don't know! I guess it doesn't have to be."

"You guess? That's not good enough! You either want to marry me or you don't!"

"I _do _want to marry you."

"I want to marry you too, so why are we waiting?"

"You're clearly not ready for us to be married. The house has been ready for months and you still haven't moved in yet. We're still doing the 'your place or mine' bit! That says to me that you're not ready!"

"I'm not ready? I've been waiting for you to be ready for me to move in, but you never said anything about it!"

"I shouldn't have had to say anything! The whole point of the remodeling was for you to move in, but you never did!"

"I wasn't going to just move into your house without your permission!"

"My house? I thought the whole point of the remodel was making it _our _house."

"That's what I thought too, but then you had a fit when I moved my grandmother's bedroom furniture in so I thought that made it pretty clear that it was still just your house! That I wasn't welcome there!"

"I just didn't want the creepy granny furniture in the house. That doesn't mean that I didn't want you there!"

"This is stupid," Luke said kicking the side of the truck in frustration. "Why are we fighting if this is stuff we both want?"

"I don't know," Lorelai said softly. "I guess we're both just so on edge since this whole April thing that we're not really talking about the things that are important."

"Don't do that. Don't blame this on April. Things have been tense between us since we got engaged, which is completely stupid if you ask me. Getting engaged was supposed to bring us closer together, not drive us apart."

"I agree," Lorelai said. She had to admit that he was right. Things hadn't been right between them for a while. When she really thought about it, she knew she was partially to blame for that. When they'd had their fight about Christopher, he'd made it clear that he was hurt by her reluctance to set a wedding date.

"So, what's it gonna take to get our wedding back on track?"

"Not much," she said. "To be honest, I have cancelled anything yet."

"You haven't?" He questioned his eyes widening in surprise.

"No," she confessed. "I was hoping that once things calmed down a little that it might still happen."

"It still can, I mean, if you want it to."

"I do," she said firmly.

"You better get used to saying that," he said as he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

"I do," she said again with a giggle as she sank into his warm embrace.

"Sounds good," he said as he planted a kiss on the top of her head. "So, April's gonna be at the diner tomorrow afternoon. Do you wanna come by and properly meet her?"

"I do," she said again inciting a groan from Luke.

"How long are you gonna keep doing that?"

"Just long enough to drive you crazy," she said with a grin.

"Short drive around you," he quipped.

"Hey!" she said with a playful smack as she pulled back from him a little to look him in the eye. "So, my mother's probing kind of did a number on your head it seems," she said.

He nodded in response and said, "When she started talking about how we were wasting time, I started thinking the same thing. I kept thinking that, as insane as it sounds, your mother was right."

"Yeah, that is insane, but do you know what the really weird thing is? They referred to us as family! You, me!"

"Yeah, what was that about?"

"Well, I think in some twisted way that may have been them actually validating us as a couple!"

"Wow, that is twisted. And weird."

"And she acted almost disappointed when I told her that you hadn't gotten me pregnant!"

"I know! Though I could've lived without your crack about me bending you over the table in front of your parents."

"It wouldn't be the first time you've bent me over a table," she said suggestively.

"I'm aware of that, but that was a little inappropriate dinner conversation."

"Sometimes, with my mother it takes something extreme like that to get her to shut up."

"Sounds like someone else I know," he said with a smile. He was silent for a moment wondering whether he should really ask her the question that had been on his mind since Emily had suggested that there were an alternate explanation for Lorelai's "upset stomach.' He decided to chance it. "So, this whole family planning thing, where do we stand on that?"

"You still want kids? With me, I mean?" she asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I told you that the night you proposed."

"But I thought…."her voice faltered when she found herself unable to put into words what she was feeling.

"You thought what? That now that I've got April, I wouldn't want a kid with you?" When she simply nodded he said, "That's crazy. Just because I found out about her, that doesn't change the way I feel about having kids with you. In fact, I've thought about it more, since I've known about April and I was before."

"Really?"

"Yes, really. That's one of the things that's been making me so nuts. I wanted more than anything for you to be the mother of my children and then I found out I've got this kid out there with someone else and it really bugged me, you know? I never really loved Anna and we had a kid together when you're the one I _do _love and wanted to have kids with."

"I guess I never thought of it like that. I thought it was more about you feeling guilty for never being there for April."

"That was part of it, too, but the worst part of it was that I was worried that it would ruin my future with you. I even told Liz that I was terrified that this would wreck things between us. Then she told me that it didn't have to, but then I turned around and wrecked thing by not telling you about it right away."

"Why _didn't_ you tell me right away? And please don't give the 'I was confused' bit again. I know there's more to it than that."

"God, I wanted to so many times. I was going to tell the day I first found out, but then you came barreling into the diner so excited that Rory was back and I saw how happy you were and I…"

"I get it," she said with a nod.

"Then Thanksgiving when you were talking about Christopher paying for Yale, I wanted to tell you, but then you were going on and on about how Rory was happy that her dad was finally taking an interest, that I clammed up again because I was feeling like a deadbeat dad for never taking care of April like that."

"You're not a deadbeat dad to April. You never knew about her. That's not your fault."

"I know that, but it still felt wrong that I had this kid that I never did anything for. I'm her father and she grew up without me. I was still thinking about having kids with you then and I thought that if I couldn't be a good dad to April, how was I gonna be a good dad to our kids? Then I thought if an irresponsible jerk like Christopher was stepping up and being a dad, what the hell was wrong with me?"

"So, you chickened out again," she said.

"Yeah," he admitted. "Then I was finally determined that I was going to tell you once and for all that night that I came to the house after you'd made all our wedding plans. I knew that I couldn't live with myself anymore if I kept putting it off, but then when I saw you standing there in your wedding dress, I just…I couldn't think. You were so insecure about it and I never thought you looked more beautiful. All I could think about was the day I'd get to see walking down the aisle toward me in that dress and, like the big dumbass that I am, I put off telling you again."

"Wow," she said thoughtfully chewing on her lower lip as she pondered her fiancée's words.

"I guess, more than anything, I didn't tell you right away because I didn't want to ruin your happiness. I wanted so much to see you happy again after that big mess with Rory. It tore me apart seeing you so sad all the time, especially when Paul Anka was sick and you kept going on and on about how you were a bad mother. I've known for years what a great mother you are and that's why I wanted so badly for you to be the mother of my kids," he said hanging his head not daring to look her in the face after his confession.

"I still could be," she said softly as she stroked his stubbly face and forced him to look up at her.

"Yeah?" He said with anticipation.

"Yeah, in fact, I was thinking that I promised you a little happiness in bed tonight in exchange for making Michel so happy," She said as she slid her arms around his neck. "What better time to start trying?"

"Are you sure?" He asked uncertainly.

"Yes, I'm sure," she answered as she pressed her lips to his. He responded by wrapping his arms around her and pulling her close to him. As their kissing grew more heated, they were interrupted by the opening of the front door.

"Good Lord, what are the two of you still doing out here?" Emily's voice rang out as she stepped out of the house. She stopped abruptly when she saw them locked in a passionate embrace which they quickly stopped upon hearing her voice. "Never mind," Emily said.

"What are you doing out here, Mom?"

"Well, I thought I heard shouting so I came out to see what was going on. Clearly, I was mistaken and it wasn't shouting that I heard at all," Emily said in a suggestive tone.

"We were just…um…trying to…um…clear our heads a little before heading back to Stars Hollow," Lorelai stammered while Luke blushed furiously and stared down at his shoes embarrassed by the fact that Emily had caught him making out with her daughter in her driveway.

"Did it work?" Emily asked acerbically glancing at Luke while Lorelai giggled at seeing the expression on her mother's face.

"Stop it," Luke hissed at Lorelai which only caused her to laugh harder. "I think we're good, Emily," he said to her still blushing.

"Good," Emily said. "Good night, then. Lorelai, I'll see you next Friday." She turned on her heel and walked back into the house leaving them alone again while Lorelai still howled with laughter.

"I'm glad you think this is so funny," Luke groused.

"Come on, Babe. You gotta admit, the look on her face was priceless!"

"You're sick, you know that?"

"So, I've been told," she said as she turned back toward him and kissed him again.

"Knock it off," he said pulling back from her. "Do you want her to come back out here?"

"No," she said. "Do you think you can drive now?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Good, then let's go home and make a baby."

"Yeah?" He said with a hopeful smile.

"Yeah," she said as she gestured toward the truck. He opened the door for her and got into the other side reaching for her hand as they made their way back home to start planning for their future.

END


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